Distribution Roundup: Smuttynose Grows in Michigan, No-Li Heads North

In preparation for the christening of its new brewing facility, New Hampshire’s Smuttynose Brewing expanded its distribution footprint and began shipping kegs to Michigan last month.

The brewery’s new multi-use headquarters in Hampton is slated to open in December. The company is also looking at foreign shores.

“We’ve been looking to export to Sweden for a while, and it looks like we’re just about ready to make that happen,” JT Thompson, the brewery’s “minister of propaganda” told Seacoast Online.

Thompson added that Sweden is the second best market in Europe for American-made beer, behind England.

While the British may love what we pour in the states, the country has its own inspired brews as well. Robinsons Brewery took literal inspiration of the infamous metal band, Iron Maiden, of its home country. The brewery’s TROOPER Ale – which comes adorned with a skeleton soldier marching, bloody Union Jack in hand on the bottle – is a global success, having recently reached the one million pints poured benchmark, according to Drinks Business Review.

Coinciding with that, Robinsons will expand distribution to “nearly 300 Sainsbury’s stores across the UK,” the articled adds. Sainsbury’s, a 144-year-old supermarket chain, operates more than 1,100 stores throughout the UK.

“Establishing a new beer in the UK alone is a long and difficult process,” Robinsons’ beer division managing director Oliver Robinson told DBR, adding the brewery has export orders in more than 30 countries.

Back across the pond, No-Li Brewhouse of Spokane, Washington is also going international. According to a press release, the brewery has inked a deal with Modern Malt Distributing in Canada to start distributing 22 oz bombers of Born and Raised IPA, Silent Treatment Pale Ale, and Crystal Bitter ESB to its neighbors up north.

“Canadians have been bootlegging our beer across the border like ‘Smokey & The Bandit’ for awhile now,” said Dylan McDonald, the brewery’s international sales manager, in the release.

The article adds that the brewery is expecting 20-25 percent growth for 2014.

The expansion leaves Hawaii and Utah as the only two states in the country still without Green Flash distribution.

As the popularity of craft beer continues to explode, it only makes sense that the need for more distribution warehouses will also grow.

As the Albuquerque Business Journal reported, Admiral Beverage opened a new 219,000 square foot warehouse on Thursday. Additionally, 185 onsite jobs will be created as a result of the project. On top of beer, Admiral also distributes soft drinks.

Smuttynose has been brewing beer since 1994, but we trace our roots back through the early years of craft brewing, to the opening of the Northampton Brewery in 1987 and the Portsmouth Brewery in 1991....